Energy consumption is one of the key costs in various industries, for example, in the cost of operation of a manufacturing facility. Detailed energy consumption data with time stamps may be collected by information systems, but the information is not typically readily available or presented in a manner to be quickly assimilated by management of the facility.
Of all the utility bills that a commercial entity receives each month, none, perhaps, is more confusing than the electric bill. In theory, there should be no simpler parameter to measure than consumption of electricity: all the electric utility company must do is measure the consumption, multiply the measurement by an agreed-upon scheduled rate, and produce a final amount that is clear and simple to understand.
Instead, however, the known approach for producing electric utility bills is so convoluted that it often requires a separate ledger just to understand what a consumer is being asked to pay for. Currently, the electric utility company has two distinct measures according to which each commercial customer is charged: energy (measured in kWh) and demand (measured in kW). Simply put, if one imagines electricity consumption in terms of driving a motor vehicle, the energy usage (kWh) is analogous to the gasoline one consumes to travel from one point to another, while the demand (kW) is the rate at which the gasoline is consumed; drive fast, and one consumes more gasoline per mile than one does if he or she simply cruises at moderate speed down the highway. The same logic applies to electric utilities: use a large amount of power in a short amount of time, and one will place a large demand on the grid. Accordingly, to charge for energy consumption by a commercial consumer, then, the electric utility company monitors both energy usage and demand.
If that appears complicated, it is. With two variables to consider, most commercial consumers, even the ones which depend heavily on electricity, are typically not able to feed their energy consumption data into their operational models. And, with no single, streamlined parameter to work with, many enterprises rely on operational systems that help them optimize every facet of their business except electricity consumption, the cost of which is calculated as a separate, flat, monthly fee. If commercial consumers could generate a periodic (e.g., hourly) metric that they could feed into their operational models, they could optimize energy consumption as well; for that, they need a “smart grid.”
In this regard, the term “smart grid” has been overused, with a myriad of companies each touting their own contributions to smart grid technology. For a grid to be truly smart, however, one must first be able to measure and understand electric energy consumption habits accurately, and to do that one must alter the most basic building block, which is metering. Instead of the electric utility company visiting the premises of each commercial consumer monthly to obtain a measurement of energy consumption, the newly introduced smart meter technology measures electricity consumption periodically, for example, at every hour or n-minute interval. The smart meter may also be linked directly to the electric utility company mainframe, and eliminate the need for inefficient monthly visits by electric utility company personnel to read a meter. More importantly, instead of two parameters, the smart meter may produce one, providing commercial consumers with analytics that would fit neatly into their existing operational models and help commercial entities turn electricity consumption from a constant into a variable and fundamentally change the way commercial consumers consume energy.
By revolutionizing metering, one would open the market to other, stand-alone devices and applications that commercial consumers could apply to meet their own needs, and force the rest of the grid to truly smarten up. By launching smart metering technology, electric utility companies may finally charge customers based on real-time pricing, at which point the devices utilized to run businesses could become truly smart and measure when they could take advantage of optimal electricity rates, directing energy consumption accordingly. Imagine, for example, having a computer assisted system that is connected to the electric utility company mainframe; as the price of electricity fluctuates throughout the day, the computer could search for the best cost periods, turning electrical systems and devices that consume electricity on and off accordingly, thereby optimizing production and minimizing cost. All that, however, is only possible if one can arrive at one agreed-upon metric that could be universally applied.
Conventional approaches to monitoring electric energy consumption generally consist of monthly electric utility bills with no graphical presentation of the data. The conventional approach regarding electric energy consumption, compiled on a monthly basis, does not provide daily or hourly detail, and the reasons for any cost problems can no longer be readily recalled. The prior art does not provide a comprehensive and user-friendly view of electric energy consumption on a periodic basis.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that can present electric energy consumption data on a periodic basis, that does not require a significant commitment of time or expertise to assimilate. The need exists to present a large volume of data which can be readily assimilated by mangers employing a new metric that lends to graphical presentation for monitoring electric energy consumption and related costs.